Sorry, this took so long. I kept starting this chapter and not liking where it was going, so it took a while.

April 161AG

Uncle Sokka was sick. At first it seemed minor, but then his symptoms got worse. Katara wrote to their family, unsure if he would make it.

Kya came straight away with her family. They had been there two days when Tenzin showed up with Pema, Meelo, and Rohan. His other acolyte was at home with his airbending baby girl Ami.

Katara and Kya took shifts caring for Sokka. He could only have two visitors at a time to avoid the room getting too crowded.

Tenzin waited for a chance to see his uncle. While he was outside, he saw Lin going into his mother's house. He should have realized she would be here, and if she's here, then Kya and the girls are here too.

When he went to see Uncle Sokka, his mother was in the room tending to him.

"How are you feeling?" He asked his uncle.

"I feel like hell. They're doing everything they can, but this might be my final fight."

He sounded his age for the first time ever.

Meelo and Rohan were having a snowball fight. They saw Ikki and Jinora from a distance and decided to start throwing snow at them.

Big mistake! Ikki started waterbending snowballs back at them and they had to take off on air scooters.

While Kya rested and Lin tried to get the housework done, the four siblings interacted together for the first time.

"Are you here for Uncle Sokka?" Meelo asked once the fight was done

The girls nodded.

"I'm Jinora."

"I'm Ikki."

"Meelo," one boy said.

"Rohan," said his brother.

"How do you know him?" Meelo asked.

"He's our uncle too."

They had never seen the girls before.

"Who are your parents?" Rohan asked.

"Lin and Kya."

"Lin is Bumi's sister in law," Meelo told them, that much he knew.

Ikki nodded. "Kya is his sister."

"If your mom is Bumi's sister, isn't she our Dad's sister too?" Rohan asked.

"She is," Jinora told the boy.

When Tenzin came to get his sons, he saw them playing with Ikki and Jinora.

Ikki had the advantage in the snowball fight as she could bend snowballs at them, but the boys could airbend away and Jinora had no earth.

"Meelo, Rohan!" Tenzin called.

"Coming Dad!"

The boys went to see Uncle Sokka.

"Ikki's good at throwing snowballs," Meelo told him.

"She can throw them faster than we can dodge them."

"I will always say this: waterbenders are cheats when it comes to snowball fights."

"How come we never see Ikki and Jinora?" Meelo asked father.

"It's complicated."

"Why?" Rohan asked.

"Their mothers don't like me very much."

"Why?" Meelo asked.

"Because the past is complicated," Tenzin told him.

"Why?" Rohan asked.

"It's not a story I should tell children," Tenzin told them. "It's time for bed."

Of course, the boys went to ask Ikki and Jinora why their parents didn't get along.

Ikki wasn't sure if they should say. "Um, maybe you should ask our mom."

"Which one?"

"Either."

Meelo found Lin. She had just come out from visiting Uncle Sokka.

"Aunt Lin!" he chased her down.

Oh Boy. "Hi Meelo."

"How did you know I wasn't Rohan?"

"He has a birthmark on his neck," Lin had remembered the photo.

"Oh." Most people didn't notice. "How come you and Dad aren't friends?"

Lin wasn't sure if she should tell him. "What did your father say?"

"He said it was complicated."

"Well, your father and Kya are brother and sister. They used to get along, but they got into an argument and they haven't spoken since."

"When?"

"About ten years ago."

"That's a long time."

"Yeah it is."

"Do you have siblings?"

"One sister."

"Did you go ten years without talking to her?"

"I went three, but then we made up before I got married."

"Will Dad and Kya make up?"

"I don't know."

Rohan went to find Kya. She was taking care of Sokka. "Hi Aunt Kya! Hi Uncle Sokka!"

This was the first time he had ever spoken to her. "Hi …"

"I'm Rohan."

"Hi Rohan."

"How come you and Dad aren't friends anymore?"

Sokka made a face. Oh I'd rather be deadly ill than answer that question!

"We got into a fight."

"Why?"

"Because he thought I had tricked him."

"Why?"

"Because I didn't tell him that I was with Lin right away."

"Why?"

"I thought he would be mad, so I was waiting for a better time to tell him, but he found out anyway."

Before he could ask why, he heard his mother calling him.

"Bye!"

He ran out.

"What should I do?" Kya asked her Uncle.

He shook his head. "I reserve the right to remain silent!"

The boys told their mother about Kya and Dad, hoping that she could help them get to talk again, but she told them that they had to stay out of it.

"Why?"

"Because this is a fight between them," Pema told them.

The boys frowned. They wanted their whole family back.

As soon as Sokka's illness appeared, it disappeared. Once he was healthy again, his family started to head back to their lives.

Rohan and Meelo didn't see their cousins for sometime.

"Was it deceptive of us, not to tell them that we're not exactly cousins?" Ikki asked Jinora.

"I don't think it was our place to tell them," Jinora said. "Their parents should tell them."

Tenzin didn't tell his children. They had no idea that they all shared the same father until over two years later when the boys first went to school.

September 163AG

They had to do a family tree for class, but the teacher marked it incorrect.

"Two girls can't make a baby."

"What?"

They had listed Lin and Kya as Ikki's and Jinora's parents.

"They must be adopted."

They had to redo the assignment. They asked their mom for help. "Are Ikki and Jinora adopted?"

"No, Lin had them herself."

"Then who's their father?" Rohan asked.

"Their father and Lin divorced," Pema told them. "He doesn't raise them."

"So Kya's their father now?"

"Yes."

They went back to their teacher and said that the girl wasn't adopted, and they didn't know whom the father was. "Lin had them, but her husband left."

Not wanting to let the matter go, for whatever, reason, the teacher told them to look up their family tree in the library. They got help from the librarian only to see, "It says that Tenzin is their dad," Meelo told his brother.

"But Tenzin is our dad."

They looked at the tree.

"This is Dad. It says Aang is his dad, and he was our granddad."

When their father got home, they wanted to know, "How come the book at the library says that your Ikki and Jinora's dad?" Rohan questioned

"What?"

"Our teacher told us we had to correct our family tree and when we went to the library, it said you were their dad," Meelo told him.

Damn teacher! "Lin and I were married and we had Jinora and Ikki, but when we got divorced, Lin didn't want me around, so I left, and then she married my sister." It wasn't the whole story, but it was truthful.

"Is that why you and Kya don't talk?" Rohan asked.

"Yes."

"So Jinora and Ikki are our sisters," Meelo asked.

"Technically, half sisters."

Of course, Meelo and Rohan wanted to meet up with their sisters. The next day, they snuck out of school to get to the high school down the street. Jinora was in her final year of high school and Ikki just started. The boys got into the building, but they couldn't find their sisters, so they kept going in and out of classrooms until they found, "IKKI!"

"Who are those boys?" The teacher did not sound amused.

"They're my cousins."

"Actually, we're her half-brothers. Did you know that?" Meelo asked Ikki.

"Why are they here?" the teacher questioned.

Ikki took them outside. "How did you get here?"

"We left school," Rohan told her.

"We go down the street."

"Why?"

"We wanted to hang out with you and Jinora."

That's sweet, but they can't just leave the school. Unsure of what to do with them, Ikki went to get her sister.

"What are you doing?" Jinora questioned.

"Meelo and Rohan ditched school."

"What?"

She left her class to see her sister with their "brothers" in the hallway.

"What do I do with them?"

The hall monitor came.

"Crap!" Jinora complained.

Ikki froze the boy into shackles, and they ran away.

"You idiot," Jinora told her as they fled.

The girls ended up taking the boys to mom's office.

[Knock Knock]

"Come in!"

Jinora opened the door.

Meelo and Rohan ran in. "Hi Aunt Lin!"

"Hi Meelo, Hi Rohan. Girls, what's going on?"

"They busted out of school," Ikki told her.

"We didn't know what to do with them, so we brought them here."

"Why didn't you just bring them back to school?"

"Oops," Jinora told her.

Lin went to call the school, only to hear that they had already had them reported as critical missing, and the police were on the way.

Just then a rookie came in. "Tenzin's kids are missing!" He looked down. "Aren't those Tenzin's kids?"

Lin sighed. "Cancel the critical missing and get me the idiot who declared this a major case without informing me!"

Tenzin, of course, was that idiot. He insisted the police treat this as a critical missing case and they did without checking with their boss.

"MEELO! ROHAN! What are you doing here?"

"We wanted to visit our sisters," Meelo told him.

"School's boring so we left," Rohan said nonchalantly.

"They sound like Bumi," Lin sighed.

"I'm taking both of you back to school, and why didn't you call me? I was worried sick!"

"They just got here, and why did you declare them critical missing? They weren't missing!"

Lin and Tenzin argued, as usual. Jinora and Ikki took the boys the school before returning to their classes.

Tenzin blamed the girls for being irresponsible, and Lin told Tenzin this was his own fault. "Maybe if you had told your sons the truth, they wouldn't have run off to meet their sisters during school."

"You think this is my fault?"

"My kids never ran away from school. I also didn't keep anything from them."

"It's not like you would have let the twins see their sisters anyway."

"Don't you dare pin this on me. You didn't even tell them that they had sisters. The only reason Rohan and Meelo don't know their sisters is you!"

"ME?"

"Yeah you! We never intended on keeping the girls from their siblings, but what choice did we have?

You wouldn't talk to us. You didn't tell your kids that they were related to us in anyway. There's a reason that when the family gets together you and your two boys are the only ones missing."

Tenzin wanted to argue, but she was right. The girls were much closer to the rest of the family than his boys, and it was his fault.

May 164AG

Jinora graduated high school. She was taking a year off to travel and then she was going to apply for the metalbending police force like her mother and grandmother.

"Another Chief Bei Fong in the making, just you wait," Bumi told her as he handed her a present.

"Thanks Uncle Bumi." He was the father she never had. She always looked forward to his visits.

The whole family was there, Toph emerged from whatever swamp she was living in. Suyin and Bataar brought their gaggle of children. Uncle Sokka and aunt Suki were there. Katara even brought her grandsons. She was happy to have a chance to know them.

"If we got a firebender in our family, we'd have all four elements," Meelo told his grandmother.

"Your grandfather could bend fire," Katara told him. "He was the Avatar."

"Whose the Avatar now?" Rohan asked her.

"Her name is Korra. She lives in the Southern Water Tribe."

"Like you?"

"That's right."

Katara tried to convince her son to come, but he was afraid there'd be a scene. Having his boys here was a start, baby steps.

It wasn't until the celebratory lunch that Katara realized, "Opal's an airbender?"

The girl shrugged. "I don't know how. No one else in our family bends."

Rohan and Meelo heard airbender and started showing off their moves.

"Can you do this?" Rohan did a double back flip.

"How about this?" Meelo made an air scooter.

Opal could do the backflips, but she had never seen an air scooter before.

"Dad says grandpa invented it."

They started correcting her form.

"Bending is so arbitrary," Ikki told her sister. "How is it that Opal became an airbender, out of all of the Bei Fongs?"

"You do realize if we had been airbenders, we'd probably be vegetarians, like the twins."

"EW!" Ikki complained. "I love my meat!"

"Did someone say meat?" Sokka was ready for more meat.

Suki shook her head. "Sometimes, I think you're still 15 years old," she told him.

"Because of my dashing good looks?" He waggled a brow.

She rolled her eyes.

May 165AG

Jinora was back from her travelling. She had lived in Zaofo, Kyoshi Island, the Southern Water Tribe, the Southern Air Temple, and Ember Island before returning back to Republic City.

She wasn't expecting it, but the Southern Air Temple was her favorite location. It was nice to see where her grandfather had grown up. She had only been six years old when he died; it was hard to remember him outside of the stories her family told.

She didn't realize that the airbenders had grown up communally. They didn't have mothers and fathers. They were split up by gender and they had mentors instead. She wondered if that influenced her grandfather's parenting and in turn Tenzin's. How does one parent if he never had parents?

Ikki, for one, was glad to have her sister back. "With you gone, our moms were obsessed with me."

"I heard that," Lin called.

"See what I mean. Where are you going? Who are you with? Want to play cards."

"I missed you too Ikki," Jinora teased.

"Hush up. Did you meet any cute boys?"

"Well there was this one boy I met on the beach."

"Tell me about him."

"His name was Iroh."

Lin was eavesdropping.

"Stop eavesdropping," Kya scolded.

"But she's talking about a boy she met."

"Oh, then eavesdrop."

It wasn't much of a story. They just kissed in the moonlight.

"How romantic," Kya swooned.

"Is this a hint?" Lin questioned.

"It wouldn't harm you to romance me every once and a while."

"I know all about romance," Lin bragged.

"Prove it."

Lin pinned her to the counter and they started making out.

"EW!" Ikki complained when she came downstairs for juice. "You two are old, stop that!"

Kya cracked up.

"I'll show you old!" Lin chased her around the house.

September 165AG

Jinora passed her entrance exam. Over the next six months, she'd be a cadet in the Metalbending Police Force.

The Council was there to welcome the incoming class. This was the first time Jinora saw her father face to face in two years. It was strange to say the least.

"Congratulations Jinora."

"Thanks." There were so many questions she had, and there would likely never be a good time to ask.

October 166AG

Sokka got sick again. This time, he couldn't make it.

"It's time," he told his grieving wife. He could feel it in his bones. His fight was slipping away.

The tears on her face froze as she held his hand. She couldn't believe this was the end. It had been 66 years, but it seemed much too quick.

Sokka didn't want to go, but he did miss his parents, his Gran Gran, Aang, and even Gran-Pakku.

"You and Tara, take care of each other." Team Avatar was dwindling. They were finally at that stage of life.

Everyone came to pay his respects. Sokka was a beloved man and had been a fearsome warrior.

"He taught me everything I know about sword-fighting and picking up ladies," Bumi said at his wake

"So it's his fault you're single," Lin teased. She had to make a joke. It was the only way to keep from crying. Sokka was the father she never had. She loved the hell out of him.

Bumi rolled his eyes. "Not single … True Player."

"He can't even play Pai Sho," Kya teased.

Tenzin wanted to approach them, but he was too ashamed, too fearful. He just watched them from a distance and remembered when they were kids, when they all got along.

Suyin shared a rare moment with Toph. "He was my father, wasn't he?" She wondered why Huan looked so much like him.

Toph nodded. "We had a drunken threesome once and well nine months later, there you were."

Suyin was shocked and a little grossed out. "I wish I had spent more time with him."

"He loved you Suyin. I don't want you to ever doubt that."

If you don't make the most out of life, it will be too late. Suyin couldn't ignore that anymore.

After the funeral, she approached Tenzin.

"Opal's an airbender," she told him.

"How?"

"We're not entirely sure on that, but she needs a teacher."

Tenzin agreed to teach her and host her on the island.

Lin agreed to have Opal over for dinner once a week. "She's family, Su. She can come over any time."

Meelo and Rohan were excited to have Opal with them. "We can play games and hide from father during meditation and …"

They had this Aang-like innocence to them that was just endearing.

Opal had fun on the island. Everything got strange, however, when she had dinner at Aunt Lin's.

"How was your week?"

Opal explained what it was like learning how to airbend. Ikki got visibly agitated.

"Is something wrong?"

Ikki stormed off.

Lin was going to follow her, but Kya went instead. "I got it."

"This wasn't your fault," Jinora took her. "She took Tenzin's well abandonment the hardest."

Kya found Ikki on the roof. She often went there when she was upset.

"You don't have to talk," Kya told her, "but if you want to … I'm here to listen."

"It's not fair. Why did Opal get to be the airbender? Why wasn't I enough?"

Kya kissed her forehead. "I used to ask myself that every day." Aang always had time for Tenzin, but he never had time for her or Bumi. "I know it hurts. I know exactly how you feel right now.

The only thing you can do is focus on the people who are there for you. Think about all of the people we have in our family. They all love you and would do anything for you," Kya promised her.

"There are so many kids out there who don't have parents at all. Their parents died or they went to jail or they just weren't around. It seems like we got the short end of the stick, but we're both very lucky.

I had mother to teach me. You had me to teach you. Opal spent her whole life having an element she didn't know how to use. Don't you think it's time for her to get a teacher too?"

Kya got Ikki to come back to dinner.

November 166AG

A month after Opal got to the island, she finally got the nerve to confront Tenzin.

"How come you never come to see Jinora or Ikki?"

"I messed up," Tenzin admitted. "When I was younger, all I wanted were airbenders, so much so that I couldn't appreciate them for who they were. I had a chance to be their father and I blew it."

"It's not too late," Opal told him.

"I think it is."

"It's only too late when you throw in the towel or when you're dead."

May 167AG

Ikki graduated high school. She was ready to travel like Jinora had done, but she didn't know what she was going to do afterwards.

There was no waterbending police force or clear avenue for her to take. She could go into healing, but she never had much patience for sick or wounded people. She didn't see herself in the navy either. Maybe she'd get into surfing.

The family gathered for her graduation like they had Jinora's. It was obvious who was missing.

"I miss uncle Sokka," Ikki told her mother.

"Me too," Lin told her. "Me too."

When Ikki got her presents at the end of the night, she was surprised to see one from Tenzin.

"Why would he get me a present?" she questioned.

"Maybe he wants to make amends?" Jinora didn't know. She had gotten a bracelet from him when she graduated the academy, but she didn't tell Ikki about it, lest it made her angry.

It will take a lot more than one present to make up for that. Ikki stashed it in the back of her closet; she didn't even open it.

August 167AG

With Jinora and Lin at work for the city, and Ikki off to find herself, Kya often found herself alone during the day. Once she and Lin married, she never had to work. The Bei Fong trust had been quite substantial. Kya did well as a stay at home mom, but now she wondered what to do with herself. She effectively had an empty nest.

Kya went out to visit her father, well his statute in Republic City.

"You left big shoes to fill Dad," she told him as she sat in front of his image. He saved the world by 12. He dedicated his life to peace. What was she supposed to do to follow that?

Lin became chief like her mother had. Kya was sure that Jinora would take her place. Kya had no idea what she should be doing right now. "Sometimes, I feel so lost."

The wind whistled behind her. If it was a sign, Kya had no idea what it said.

She was about to leave when Tenzin came up from behind her. "If it makes you feel any better, I don't think I can fill his shoes either."

She turned and looked at her brother. He looked so much like their father it was starting to get creepy. "What brings you here?"

"Hoping for answers. I guess the same as you."

"Answers to what?"

"How did life get to be this hard?" It seemed so simple once upon a time, marry Lin, make airbenders, restore balance to the world. Now Tenzin felt like a floundering fool. Nothing he did was ever enough. He wasn't enough.

"I don't know."

"Remember when we used to go out on Oggi and hide from mother." She always wanted them to help clean the house. They'd do anything to get out of it.

"Until she followed us on Appa. She scared me shitless that one time." They had gone swimming and thought they were in the clear until Katara froze shackles on them and brought them back to the house to do their chores.

"I miss this."

"I never thought you were one for reminiscing."

"I mean us. We used to get along once, even if it was a long time ago."

"Whose fault was that?" she snapped.

"Mine, well mostly mine."

"Only mostly."

"You were in love with my wife through out our whole marriage. Did you really think that would end well?"

"You say it as if I had a choice. If I could have, I would have loved someone else … or pushed you in a volcano."

"Do you think we'll ever get along again?"

"Not yet," Kya told him, "But soon." She could forgive him for what he had done to her and Lin over the years, but she couldn't forgive him completely unless her girls forgave him first. That would take some time.

Tenzin had no idea what that meant, but he'd take it.

May 168AG

Ikki was ready to come home. After her year of travelling, she was excited to see her family again and be an adult in Republic City, hello bars and strip clubs!

First, however, she had to escape her mother's bone-crushing hug!

"Mom, you're going to kill me."

"I missed you so much," Lin was ready to cry.

Kya pried Lin away. "Come here my little water lily."

"Hi Mama."

Jinora ruffled her head. "Welcome back."

"How's the force?"

"It's alright."

"Just alright? Jinora was promoted to detective."

"Get out!"

"I'm off the streets well unless I have to go look for witnesses."

They threw Ikki a welcome home party. It was a simple affair, just Lin, Kya, Jinora, Opal, and the twins.

"I'm going to get my master arrows soon," Meelo told Ikki.

"I'm going to get them first," Rohan insisted.

"Will not!"

"Will too!"

The boys were both close to the finish line. It was unclear who would earn the honor first.

Kya put her hand on Ikki's arm for support.

"I'm okay," Ikki told her. It took a long time for what her mother said to sink in, but it finally had. Jinora was right. It did help to explore the temples.

Like Jinora, Ikki had plenty of questions for their father, but a good time never presented itself, not for another two years.

March 170AG

A new movement was rising. A group of people called Equalists was calling for the end of bending. There were rumors that they could take people's bending away. This of course, had many people worried and on edge.

The Council was divided on what to do. Some called for swift action, like Tarrlock, but Tenzin was more hesitant.

"No one has seen this supposed ability to remove bending," Tenzin pointed out. "How do we combat something if we don't know what it is?" He didn't think it was okay to just jail all of the people who supported them. Who jails people for their words? This isn't a fascist regime. It's a republic.

"They're gaining momentum," Tarrlock argued. "There are riots in the street. People aren't leaving their homes. We have to move now."

Jinora and Lin were both looking into attacks supposedly done by Equalists.

"They used some type of shock glove," Jinora told her mother. "Which suggests they can't bend or use traditional weapons."

Lin looked at a sketch. "If we can figure out how they work, then perhaps we can figure out how to disarm them."

"Do you think some type of jammer could work, like a radio signal jammer?"

They weren't able to stop the gloves, as they were powered with batteries. They were however, able to disrupt the Equalists communications with each other, making their ambushes less effective.

By April, everyone realized this wasn't just rhetoric anymore. They were on the brink of war.

As Chief, it was Lin's job to help the Council come up with a plan of attack. She decided to bring Jinora with me.

"You don't want to bring a Captain or someone with more qualifications."

Lin shook her head. "You know as much about the Equalists as anyone else. You should come with me."

Unfortunately, there was a leak in the city government. The Equalists knew about the meeting and ambushed it.

A projectile came for Councilman Tenzin. Two hands shoved him out of the way. Jinora took the hit. Even with her uniform, it was enough to knock her out.

They won the fight but not without casualties. When Tenzin got up, he saw Jinora unconscious on the ground.

"We need an ambulance! NOW!"

Lin ran over and bent the uniform off her daughter. She looked fine from the outside, but she could have internal bleeding.

Kya, Ikki, and Opal met them at the hospital.

"What happened?" Kya couldn't' believe Jinora got hurt at a meeting of all places.

"It was my fault," Tenzin told her. "An attack was coming for me, and she shoved me out of the way. I should have been faster." His daughter was unconscious, in the hospital, and it was all his fault.

Surprisingly, it was Ikki who consoled him. "It wasn't your fault. She would have done the same for anybody." It was true. Jinora took her vow to protect and serve very seriously.

Two hours later, Jinora woke up. She didn't suffer a head injury or any major damage.

"You cracked some ribs, but you should be fine with a week of rest," the doctor told her.

"It hurts to breathe."

"That should go down in a few days."

No one liked seeing Jinora hurt, but they were glad it wasn't more serious.

Ikki and Tenzin shared a moment. They had a long way to go, but they both had a resolve to crush the Equalists. Everything else could wait.